Saturday, May 27, 2017

All Disturbing Animals

This is the list of horror-game-appropriate animals for Demon City. If you see anything missing, inconsistent, or that you think should be fleshed out more, let me know. No, I didn't include hippose, the most dangerous animal in Africa. Yes, what was on purpose.

Note that "Calm Check" is how much seeing the animal in the wild freaks people out.

And remember: in real life animals are our friends and we are far more dangerous to them than they are to us--except for ones from Australian who can fuck right off.

ANIMALS

Animals can become menacing in many ways—as familiars to witches (see pg XXX), as drone slaves (see pg XXX) to necromancers or demons (see pg xxx), as revenants (see pg xxx) come back from the dead—and its also possible that they could simply decide on their own they’ve had enough and begin to kill us all.

Statistics for some horror-friendly animals are listed here: All animals have Cash and Knowledge at 0—Appeal scores indicate how likely the average naive observer is to approach the animal. Insects, rats and other vermin attacking in groups together are covered under “Swarms” (see pg XXX). Supernaturally intelligent or controlled animals which are not normally dangerous like birds or housecats will generally attack a target’s eyes first.

Notes: Aquatic, tts only attack is a painful shock—failing a Toughness check vs a 0 causes damage as an ordinary attack.

Elephant

Calm: 3

Agility: 2

Toughness: 9

Perception: 4

Appeal: 4

Calm Check: 0/5 only if attacking

Notes: Trample attack is made at Agility 1 but causes Massive Damage

Fox

Calm: 1

Agility: 5

Toughness: 1

Perception: 6

Appeal: 4

Calm Check: 2 only if attacking

Frog/Toad

Calm: 2

Agility: 5

Toughness: 0

Perception: 6

Appeal: 2

Calm Check: 1 only if attacking

Notes: Some are amphibious, the only ones that can effectively attack humans are poison arrow frogs, which range from mildly to immensely toxic (like the tiny Golden Poison Frog)—Intensity 1-10.

Goat

Calm: 3

Agility: 2

Toughness: 1

Perception: 3

Appeal: 2

Calm Check: 2 only if attacking

Gorilla

Calm: 2

Agility: 6

Toughness: 7

Perception: 5

Appeal: 1

Calm Check: 0/4 only if attacking

Notes: Climbing, opposable thumb

Hare/Rabbit

Calm: 0

Agility: 3

Toughness: 0

Perception: 6

Appeal: 4

Calm Check: 1 only if attacking

Notes: Lagomorphs ordinarily have no effective attack against humans. Hares can run up to 30mph for short distances.

Horse

Calm: 1

Agility: 4

Toughness: 7

Perception: 5

Appeal: 4

Calm Check: 4 only if attacking

Notes: Can run up to 25-30 mph

Hyena

Calm: 2

Agility: 4

Toughness: 4

Perception: 6

Appeal: 1

Calm Check: 3/4 if attacking

Insects/Spiders

Calm: 0

Agility: 1 (land) 7 (flying)

Toughness: 0

Perception: 6

Appeal: 0-3

Calm Check: 0-1

Notes: Some amphibious or aquatic or amphibious, some fly. Most have no effective attack alone, except venomous ones (including bees, wasps, harvester ants, caterpillars and spiders) which can vary wildly, from Intensity 1-10. The most dangerous ones are spiders, including Brazilian Wandering Spiders and Australia’s Northern Funnel Web.

Jaguar/Leopard/Panther

Calm: 3

Agility: 5

Toughness: 6

Perception: 6

Appeal: 2

Calm Check: 4/5 if attacking

Notes: Can climb trees

Jellyfish

Calm: 2

Agility: 1

Toughness: 0

Perception: 1

Appeal: 0

Calm Check: 0/3 if attacking

Notes: Aquatic. Jellyfish stings range from harmless in some species to intensity 10 toxicity. They have no other effective attack alone. Australia’s Box Jellyfish is toxicity 10 as are tiny Irukandji Jellyfish—no bigger than a thumbnail. The massive (8 ft diameter) and eerie Lion’s Mane Jellyfish has an Intensity 1 toxin.

Komodo dragon

Calm: 2

Agility: 2

Toughness: 4

Perception: 1

Appeal: 2

Calm Check: 3/4 if attacking

Notes: Komodo dragon’s mildly toxic bites cause the victim to make a Toughness check vs intensity 1 or lose a point of Toughness, however this toxin alone can never bring an adult below 0.

Leech/Slug/Snail/Worm/Maggot

Calm: 5

Agility: 0

Toughness: 0

Perception: 1

Appeal: 0

Calm Check: 0/3 if on the character

Notes: Some are amphibious, normally have no way of attacking humans, though leeches can spread infections.

Notes: Aquatic, eject obscuring ink clouds (Perception vs 2 to find your way through), chameleonlike coloration (5 to find a hidden octopus), the only ones with an effective attack against humans are the blue ringed octopus (Poison intensity 7 or suffer total paralysis for 1-10 hours and die within 1-10 minutes if not given cpr) and, possibly, the giant squid.

Owl

Calm: 1

Agility: 7

Toughness: 1

Perception: 7

Appeal: 4

Calm Check: 0, 2 if attacking

Notes: Flying, night vision

Peacock

Calm: 1

Agility: 1

Toughness: 0

Perception: 2

Appeal: 5

Calm Check: 0 only if attacking

Notes: No effective attack against humans unless their face is already very close to beak or claws

Piranha

Calm: 1

Agility: 4

Toughness: 0

Perception: 3

Appeal: 0

Calm Check: 4 if recognized

Notes: Aquatic. Piranha are only dangerous in Swarms.

Raccoon

Calm: 3

Agility: 4

Toughness: 0

Perception: 6

Appeal: 2

Calm Check: 1/4 if attacking

Notes: Climbing

Rat

Calm: 0

Agility: 4

Toughness: 0

Perception: 4

Appeal: 0

Calm Check: 2/4 if attacking

Notes: Climbing, sometimes disease-carrying

Reindeer/Stag

Calm: 1

Agility: 4

Toughness: 7

Perception: 5

Appeal: 3

Calm Check: 4 if attacking

Rhinoceros

Calm: 3

Agility: 3

Toughness: 8

Perception: 2

Appeal: 2

Calm Check: 1/4 if attacking

Shark

Calm: 2

Agility: 4

Toughness: 7

Perception: 3

Appeal: 0

Calm Check: 4/5 if attacking

Notes: aquatic

Snake—constrictor

Calm: 2

Agility: 6

Toughness: 1-3

Perception: 4

Appeal: 0

Calm Check: 3/4 if attacking

Note: amphibious, the largest pythons are technically capable of killing an adult human but in practice it’s incredibly rare, in most cases the constrictor is frightening and perhaps an impediment but not a real danger.

Snake—venomous

Calm: 2

Agility: 6

Toughness: 0-1

Perception: 4

Appeal: 0

Calm Check: 3/4 if attacking

Notes: Amphibious, snake venoms vary wildly in toxicity by species as well as amount of venom delivered per bite—Intensity 1-10. Intensity 10 snakes mostly come from Australia including the Inland Taipan, the Dubois Sea Snake (widely distributed there and in Southeast Asia), and the excitingly-named Eastern Brown Snake.

Stingray

Calm: 3

Agility: 3

Toughness: 1

Perception: 3

Appeal: 2

Calm Check: 0/3 if attacked

Notes: Aquatic. Most stings are merely painful, but if the victim fails a Toughness check vs 0, the embedded spine can cause a standard damage.

Swan

Calm: 2

Agility: 2

Toughness: 0

Perception: 2

Appeal: 4

Calm Check: 1 only if attacked

Notes: Flying, floating, swans usually have no way of hurt adult humans.

Tiger

Calm: 2

Agility: 5

Toughness: 7

Perception: 6

Appeal: 2

Calm Check: 4/5 if attacking

Tortoise/Turtle

Calm: 4

Agility: 0

Toughness: 1

Perception: 1

Appeal: 1

Calm Check: 2 only if attacking

Notes: Amphibious, shell can provides protection equal to Toughness 1-4 against incidental damage, they’re normally harmless, other than snapping turtles, which can bite off a finger—treat as an Agility 3 standard attack that’s never fatal.

Flightless bird just seems like a good baseline animal to have stat wise; like fast, unpredictable , has knife legs but potentially not as solid as a wolf or jaguar.also chimps are a lot stronger than your average monkey, like stronger than most people.Also did you ever read about that famous chimp that flipped out one day and ate a ladys face and the E.R staff were offered counselling because the injuries were so horrific?